Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Gripping Beast Dark Ages Cavalry Kit Review

     It has been simply ages since I did a kit review, this is in part due to my life being invaded by the Castillo Project, but also in part due to my resolve not to buy more minis than I was painting (this has slowed purchases to an absolute crawl). Yet here I am with a new box of Gripping Beast Dark Age Cavalry in my hands, I suppose rules exist to guide rather than dictate.......

     

      As I indicated in earlier posts, I have long harbored a desire to build a Romano-British dark Ages Army. I resisted this for many reasons but found my resolve slipping when GB released their Late Roman Infantry a while back. Then I walked into Michigan Toy Soldier to find this beauty on the "New Items" shelf. The last shreds of my resistance fell away in an instant. I confess that I have always liked GB's plastic figures for their clean sculpting and realistic poses, the box was mine before I could think twice. Let's look inside, I am sure that you will be as pleased as I was.



inside the box we find six frames of bases and four identical sprues of cavalry models

side A of the sprue, three differently posed horses and three rider bodies
the kit provides enough extra shields and weapons to allow you to
 have each model a distinctly different figure

side B of the same, the figures are cast in a soft grey plastic that
 displays excellent detail and very minimal mold lines

lots of spare heads allow you to assemble figures of different barbarian tribes

very characterful faces, the extras will be appearing on other models soon ;)




the horses are well sculpted , without the over-done cartoonish
 muscles that sometimes appear on equine figures in this scale

they assemble easily and look the part, 
one must keep in mind that these are not the massive horses of the high Medieval period  
 


there are only three poses and the parts do not admit of being assembled any other way
this limits choice but also prevents the modeller from 
creating outlandish poses that a real horse could not replicate

they are excellent horses to my eye



the riders went together easily and fit the horses perfectly

a touch of paint really brings them together



at first I didn't care for the over-arm rider pose but, once I had assembled the figure,
 I changed my mind, he is as active as is his horse

even my limited painting skills produced some very effective  models 

     All-in-all an excellent box of miniatures. As had come to be expected from plastic minis the detail is simply superb, the ease of assembly of this kit is excellent and the options allowed by the extra parts provided create the opportunity for the gamer to create an entirely unique unit. If you are looking for an affordable addition to your Dark Ages forces look no further than this kit.


5 comments:

  1. Great review. I have a set I purchased a few months ago. The pile grows. Cheers

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  2. Thanks for the review - I’m just getting into Saga and WAB, with an eye to collect late Romano-British. I do miss your reviews, particularly the Zvesda WWII kits.

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    1. Be sure to take a look at the Gripping Beast Late Roman Infantry, they will cover Romano-British foot pretty well (I am painting some right now)

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  3. Having had these figures in my hand before passing them on to the owner (group order from Grippng Beast), I agree with the review. So much so that my two boxes should be arriving at my front door step tomorrow or Saturday!

    Cheers
    Kevin

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  4. Very nice kit review. Good job! 😀

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